SolarWorld's laid off workers at US Hillsboro plant to get federal aid

(SeeNews) – Jul 23, 2013 – Troubled German solar system maker SolarWorld (ETR:SWV) said Monday that the US Department of Labor (DOL) has granted dislocation benefits to laid-off workers at its factory in Hillsboro, Oregon, taking into account that the redundancies were caused by Chinese dumping practices.

The benefits will be for some 50 workers who will lose their jobs this summer. They include job-placement assistance, expenses on relocation and retraining.

SolarWorld announced earlier in July that due to unfair Chinese competition, it will carry out a restructuring at the Hillsboro factory including suspension of silicon crystal and wafer manufacturing and 100 job cuts, or 14% of its workforce.

This is the second downsizing for SolarWorld in the US after the closure last year of the solar-panel production plant in Camarillo, California, when the laid-offs were also granted benefits by DOL.

SolarWorld was one of the solar panel manufacturers who filed in February 2013 an appeal with the US Court of International Trade to counter illegal Chinese trade practices. Federal investigations concluded that China’s government illegally supported its solar exports and its state-subsidized producers were selling below production costs in the US market.

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